The untold story of WWII pilots using decommissioned planes to save Israel

New from Stackpole Books is “Saving Israel” by Boaz Dvir.

As it prepared to ward off an invasion by five well-equipped neighboring armies in 1948, newborn Israel lacked the weapons to defend itself. Enter Al Schwimmer, an American World War II veteran who feared a repeat of the Holocaust.

He created factitious airlines, bought decommissioned transport airplanes from the US War Asset Administration, fixed them in California and New Jersey, and sent his pilots — World War II aviators — to pick up rifles, bullets and fighter planes from the only country willing to break the international arms embargo: Czechoslovakia. 

For the crime of delivering these and other weapons, including three B-17 bombers which, along with the other planes he brought in, formed the nucleus of the Israeli Air Force, Schwimmer and some of the key members of his team paid a heavy price. They lost their civil rights after being convicted of breaking the arms embargo and the 1939 Neutrality Act. Years later, three presidents would pardon three of them.

This mostly unknown chapter in history reads like a thriller, according to the publisher.

The operation members risked their lives, freedom, and American citizenship to prevent what they viewed as a possible second Holocaust. Their story is one of a covert mission involving smuggling arms, evading the FBI and State Department, connecting to underground Jewish intelligence and military groups, gaining the support of the mafia, ferrying arms — mostly Nazi surplus weapons and fighter planes — across thousands of miles, and taking them into combat.

Dvir is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who produced and directed the PBS documentary A Wing and a Prayer. The hour-long film, which tells this story, won best feature documentary at the 2016 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and has been shown around the world.

Dvir, an assistant professor of journalism at Penn State, has also produced and directed the documentaries Jessie’s Dad, Discovering Gloria, and Cojot, about a French banker who sets out to kill former Nazi Klaus Barbie.

The new book is available on Amazon for $20.38 and from the publisher for $29.95.